Topic: Integration in Germany

Named after an eleventh-century Persian scholar, the Avicenna scholarship programme will offer its first 50 scholarships to students for the coming winter semester 2014/15. It is the first programme of its kind for gifted Muslims in Germany. Thus far, the country has only had special religious scholarship programmes for Christians or Jews. Shohreh Karimian spoke to Beschir Hussain and Matthias Meyer, the initiators of this innovative programmeMore

Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière has announced that the German Islam Conference will no longer concern itself with security issues. For sociologist Naika Foroutan of Berlin's Humboldt University, this is a positive sign. At last, the conference will be able to concentrate on ensuring religious equality for Muslims in Germany. Claudia Mende spoke to herMore

Belkis Baharcieva came to Germany as a refugee in 2001. At the age of 30, she began studying fashion design in Trier. Baharcieva recently set up an online fashion shop, selling her own designs to Muslim women who want to wear high-quality, beautiful Islamic clothing. Falah Elias spoke with the designerMore

Attitudes and approaches to integration in Germany have changed a lot over the past 20 years. During this period, Germany has gone from a denial that it is a country of immigration to a concerted effort to improve integration. Aladin El-Mafaalani takes a closer look at what has changedMore

Language is a crucial part of therapy when treating psychological disorders. Yet how is therapy possible when the therapist and the patient don't even speak the same language? This is often a huge problem for immigrants. Marcus Lütticke has the detailsMore

The theatre performance project UNART gave pupils from a Berlin "welcome class" the chance to perform on the stage of the city's Maxim Gorki Theatre. Would the endless hours of rehearsal pay off and take them into the final? Andrea Kasiske watched them rehearsingMore

Since the row that erupted at last year's Islam Conference, dialogue between the German state and its Muslim residents has faltered. Now, the new interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, wants to get things moving again by changing the forum's orientation. But what can the German Islam Conference realistically hope to achieve in the future? By Ulrike HummelMore

In 2010, the German politician and former member of the board of the Bundesbank Thilo Sarrazin, caused a nationwide uproar with his hugely controversial theories on intelligence, class, race, immigration and multiculturalism. The prominent migration specialist Klaus J. Bade has now written a book on the ensuing debate. According to Andreas Pflitsch, Bade's analysis is thorough, but he completely misses the essence of the matterMore

The Archbishop of Cologne recently drew distinctions between the value of Christian and Muslim families in Germany. For Detlef Pollack, this is not an expression of Islamophobia, but an example of German reservations. Stefan Dege spoke to the sociologist of religionMore

The SPD's Aydan Özoguz is the first politician of Turkish origin to hold a top post in Germany. As integration minister, she gives a voice to the country's many migrants - but she has not been without controversy. By Michael HartlepMore

If a Turk receives and keeps German citizenship in addition to his own Turkish nationality, then he suffers an identity crisis. If a German were to additionally obtain Turkish citizenship however, this would be no problem at all. A commentary by Prof. Klaus J. BadeMore

Guido Steinberg is Germany's foremost specialist on Islamist terrorism in Europe. In this interview with Paul Hockenos, he talks about the specifics of German Islamist terrorism and al-Qaeda's change of strategyMore

If Europe's immigration policy is not changed in the coming years, the continent's population will start to shrink dramatically in 2025. Annika Zeitler spoke to the German migration expert and former President of the Bundestag, Rita SüssmuthMore

The concept of European Islam has proved to be a constant source of controversy. For some it embodies the deliverance of Islam from everything that is perceived as backward looking and pre-modern. Others fear that a European Islam is a watered-down religion, a kind of government-controlled "state Islam", prepared to fully accommodate to the wishes of the authorities. By Claudia MendeMore

The fight against dual citizenship is an assault on the reality of life in Germany. While it is true to say that those who want to assume German citizenship have to decide, they are not deciding whether to feel a little bit more Turkish or a little bit more German; they are deciding in favour of democracy, a state governed by the rule of law and the basic principles on which the constitution is built. A commentary by Heribert PrantlMore